Kustok held on $2M bail in wife's homicide

Zak and Sarah Kustok leave after a court hearing today for their father, accused of killing their mother. At right is the family attorney Pete Rush. (Alex Garcia/Chicago Tribune)

Bail of $2 million was set today for Allan Kustok, accused of killing his wife Anita in their Orland Park home and then driving her body to a local hospital.

Kustok has denied killing his wife. He has told authorities in a video statement that he woke up to a loud noise Wednesday morning and found his wife in bed, dead from a gunshot wound.

Her arms were crossed over her chest and her right hand was holding a Smith and Wesson .357-caliber handgun, he told police. He grabbed the gun and tossed it across the room, then held her and wiped the blood from her face, authorities said.

Following the bond hearing Kustok, 59, was taken to Cook County Jail on Chicago's Southwest Side, where he told officials he wanted to be held in protective custody, according to Cook County Sheriff's spokesman Steve Patterson.

After undergoing mental and physical evaluations as part of the intake process, officials decided that Kustok would be held in the jail's hospital.

Meanwhile, the Kustoks' children made their first statement about the killing, saying through an attorney they do not believe he killed their mother, who went by the name Jeannie.

"Jeannie Kustok was a saint," attorney Pete Rush said. "She lived her life for everyone else. For her family, for God.

"The children know that their father could not have committed these acts the state accused him of."

The couple's two children, Sarah and Zak Kustok, sat in the front row of the courtroom during the hearing, holding each other as prosecutors laid out details of their mother's death.

Kustok told authorities he threw the gun across the bedroom as he held his dead wife. Then he wiped blood from her face, retrieved the gun and put it to his own head, according to prosecutors.

He then fired the five remaining rounds into an armoire in the bedroom, he told police. He did not call 911 or seek any emergency response, but after an hour and a half he drove her to the hospital.

Anita Kustok was wearing bed clothing and wrapped in Allan Kustok's green house robe and the fitted sheet and top sheet of the master bed, prosecutors said.

At the hospital, Allan was asked to go with police. He told authorities he and his wife were alone in the house and had retired to bed.